Metal cap for hermetically sealing bottles and means for removing the same



June 10 192%. MWL45 B. CLARK METAL CAP FOR HERMETICALLY SEALING BOTTLES AND MEANS FOR REMOVING THE SAME Filed May 21. 1923 Patented June 10, 1 924.

UNITED- STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BRAI'NARD CLARK, 0F ROZELLE, NEW SOUTH WALFS, AUSTRALIA.

METAL CAP FOR HERMETICALLY SEALING BOTTLES AN D MEANS FOR REMOVING THE SAME.

Application filed Kay 21, 1923. Serial No. 640,479.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BRAINARD CLARK, subject of the King of Great Britain and Ireland. residing at Lucknow, Victoria Street, Rozelle, in the State of New South Wales, Commonwealth of Australia, have invented new and useful Improvements in a Metal Cap. for Hermetically Sealing Bottles and Means for Removing the Same, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the sealing of bottles after they have been filled and has particular reference to a certain class of metal seals now extensively used in which the annular side wall of the cap is crimped, the crimped edge being closed in, by a suitable machine, under an annular flange like projection at the top of the bottle. Within the cap is a thin piece of cork and a thickness of special paper in order to ensure the formation of an air and water tight joint between the bottle and the seal.

In practical use a special opener is used for the purpose of removing these seals from the bottles but where these openers are not available other means are adopted and this often results in damage to property or the destruction of the bottle. The present invention has been devised for the purpose of providing a metal seal of the type referred to above and for ensuring that a means for removing them will always be ready at hand.

It consists of a met-a1 cap having a shallow crimped side wall part of which is extended to form a tag in which is a slot adapted to receive the tail piece of another cap which is used as a lever to force the cap off the bottle. If another cap is not available a plain thin strip of metal may be passed partly through the slot and used as a lever instead of the extended portion of another cap.

But in order that the invention will be properly understood it will be more partieularly described and reference will be made to the accompanying sheet of drawings in which Fig. 1 is a plan of a piece of sheet metal blanked out ready to be stamped.

Fig. 2 is an elevation of the stamped cap showing the tag and slot therein.

Fig.3 is a perspective view of the cap fixed upon the to of a bottle.

Fig. 4 is a simi a1- view to Fig- 3 b t t tag has been bent u wardly and a flat metal lever inserted in t e slot in readiness to lever the cap off the top of the bottle.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the top rtion of two bottles to which the caps have een fixed and showing the method adopted when one cap is used to remove another.

The caps are first blanked out of any suitable sheet metal to the form shown at Fig. 1, the slot 5 being stamped out at the same operation. The blank is then stamped in the usual manner to the form shown particularly at Fig. 2 leaving the tag or tail piece 6 projecting beyond the edge of the wall 7 of the cap. The portion of the tag 6 nearest to the cap itself is preferably tapered, the narrowest part being wider than the extremity of the tag. The slot 5 will be located transversely in this tapered or wider part adjacent to the junction between it and the narrow extremity of the tag.

To remove the cap from a bottle the tag is bent upwardly from the bottle as shown at Fig. 4. A fiat narrow strip of metal 8 is then passed through the slot 5, from the inside of the tag, sufficiently to allow it to rest. against the outer face of the tag or the side wall of the cap. The strip of metal is then used as a lever to lever the cap off the bottle. Where a spare cap or two bottles fitted with these caps are available the tag of one will be used in place of the strip of metal for the purpose of levering the cap off the top of the bottle (Fig. 5).

I claim 1. A metal cap for hermetically sealing bottles of the type herein referred to, including a crimped cap provided with a depending skirt having an integral projecting tongue, said tongue being provided in close proximity to said skirt with a transverse slot, the outer end of said tongue being of less width than said slot, whereby the slotv 'bottles of the ty ,shaped to fit into the slot of whereby the slot is adapted to receive the outer end of the tongue of a similar metal cap in order that the second tongue may be used as a lever to remove the first men- 18 tioned ca.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

BRAINARD CLARK. Witnesses R. Moosnn, PHIL DAVIES. 

